


XCOM: Enemy Crossfire

by XavierYoung2357



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate, XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:35:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23788669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XavierYoung2357/pseuds/XavierYoung2357
Summary: What has three fronts, one overt, one covert and one within? A war against alien invasions. When 5 university students stumble upon a gun fight, and contaminated with alien nanites, they soon find themselves under the auspice of an agency tasked to defend the world from alien threats. With escalating conflict abound, ranging across multiple fronts, their newfound powers become the only key to winning the war.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

X-COM: Enemy Crossfire  
An Animorphs and X-COM crossover  
Animorphs belong to K.A.Applegate, X-COM belongs to Microprose/Firaxis Games

Chapter 1: The Gunfight

[Jake’s Audio Transcript]  
My name is Jake. That’s all I can say about myself. I can’t disclose too much of my identity, but I’ll just say what I’m allowed to say. These men has been keeping an eye on all of us since we’ve got locked down, and I’m just luck they allowed us to record all of this.

The reason I’m recording all if this is not only to provide an ‘On the Field’ account of what that have happened, hoping that should everything went south, you know what actually happened. I know all of this is unbelievable, but when you got locked down because you got exposed with alien substances, and chased by aliens, soldiers, and agents, you know how serious it is.

Now that I got them out of the way, let me explain what just happened. You see, we all started out as normal university students, who are just enjoying their summer break. I studied Mechanical Engineering at the university. We all lived in an apartment nearby campus, and it’s easy to head to main street by public transport. 

As I was at the campus gym, practicing basketball with Marco, a Business Management student who we met during one of my practice, we had some talk about our own lives. I mentioned my brother Tom, who worked for a major PR firm. He seemed to be rather quiet since I first got on campus, hardly talking to me, but I can’t quite say why.

We remembered that we’re supposed to meet up with the rest of our friends at the bar tonight, so we got out of the gym after some cooling off, and we met Tobias along the way.

Now, Tobias was a quiet one of all of us. A Computer Science student, didn’t quite have much friends, and his parents aren’t around since he’s younger.So as he met us just outside campus, we chatted a bit for a while before heading out of campus, and to the mall as we promised Rachel and Cassie last week. 

“Hey, Tobias. Didn’t quite expecting you to be around campus during summer.” I said to Tobias.

“Well, the computer science faculty have better computers, and it’s much quieter around there, so…” Tobias replied.

“Good to know, Tobias. We’re heading down to the bar. Rachel and Cassie would be there soon” Marco said to Tobias.

“I guess I might as well join. I have little else to do anyways” Tobias nodded as he spoke.

“Well, we’ll be taking the bus there” I said, before leading them out of the campus exit and waited at the bus stop.

The bus trip to the mall is uneventful, and we soon arrived at the street where the bar is just as Rachel and Cassie saw us.

“You’re late, Jake” Rachel commented as we got off the bus. Don’t be fooled by her beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes. This Sport Science student isn’t one to mess around with.

“It’s only 1 minutes, Rachel” Marco added in our defense.

“Never mind that, Rachel. At least it’s still happy hour at the bar” Cassie said to Rachel. Cassie’s pretty much a Yin to Rachel’s Yang as far as personality goes. She’s the more peaceable one to the more assertive Rachel. She even got the dark skin and black hair as contrast.

“Well, I guess we could start the night right this time around, don’t we?” Tobias suggested.

“Sure thing, Tobias” I said, as we entered the bar, got ourselves seated, before we began to order some snacks and drinks. 

As cocktails and bar snacks are served on the table, we all talked about our plans in our future. Rachel mentioned about training new athletes in contact sports, while Cassie, our Veterinary Medicine student, thought about working in National Parks, tending injured or sick wild animals. Tobias didn’t quite say anything, all while Marco talked about pitching sales for tech companies. Personally, I planned to work with an aerospace firm. In hindsight, we never expected all our goals in life dashed because of that one incident that changed our lives for good.

Some bar snacks and drinks later, we left the bar as we head out into the street, a shortcut on our way back to our apartment. And as we walked, we all noticed what appeared to be a warehouse with one of it’s walls broken down. The lighting seemed to be gone for some reason. And the streets don’t seemed to have any people for that matter.

“This street doesn’t seem to be safe, Marco.” Cassie remarked as she watched around nervously.

“It can’t be that bad, after all. It’s not like it’s the rough part of the city” Rachel said, obviously showing her fearlessness.

Sometimes I think about that one, last moment when we were still just normal young people. Still hanging out, having our own problems at the university, grabbing that girl’s look.

It's like it was a million years ago, like it was some totally different version of ourselves. You know what I was afraid of right then ? Probably afraid that Cassie could reject me. That was as scary as life got back then.  
Five minutes later, life got a lot scarier.

To get home from the bar we could either go a long way around, which is the safe way, or we could cut through this abandoned warehouse and hope there weren't any mafia bosses or street gangsters hanging around there. Usually we don’t go this way, but I guess I wanted to show off a bit in front of Cassie as I led them through a cracked hole in the wall.

It was a big one, full of a strange silence, with a bunch of abandoned office stuff abandoned to rust and rats. It’s pretty dark, if we forget the few holes in the roof letting the wind and moonlights going through and lighten the ground. “It feels magic, doesn’t it ?” I whispered as I plunged into darkness. A few meters later, the road’s and mall’s sounds were already muffled, as if we were in another place. It's very isolated. “Feels like a ghost town” whispered Rachel.

It was a totally deserted place, full of shadows and sounds that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I already came with Marco during the day. It was a totally different place. We always found all these beer cans and liquor bottles. Sometimes we found the ashes of little campfires back in the hidden nooks and crannies of the buildings. So we knew that people came there at night. All that was on my mind as we crept through the building.

It was Tobias who saw it first. He had been walking along, scanning the environment as we were kinda playing to scare each other with Marco. I guess he was looking at the abandoned stuff or something. That's the way Tobias is sometimes - off in his own world.  
Tobias stopped. He was pointing. Pointing almost straight up. "Look," he said.

“What?” I didn't want to be distracted because I was pretty sure I heard some weird sounds behind us.

"Just look," Tobias said. 

His voice was strange. Amazed-sounding, but serious at the same time.

So I looked up. And there it was. Just behind an amount of rusty machines, and a stack of crates, barely lightened, we saw a yellow glow. As we got closer, shiny canisters with little metal legs and a tiny window made of glass appeared. The closer we got, the shinier it went, and finally we heard a muffling sound which sounded to come from the insides. It felt like the glow we perceived was alive.

"What is it?"

Tobias shook his head. "I don't know."

"That" said Marco, pointing the roof "is definitely not normal."

We looked at each other. We could see the moon from holes approximately the same diameter the canisters seemed to be. I looked at Tobias. He looked back at me.

Cassie just blurted the silence right out. “Seems like we found an alien pressure cooker !”

I could feel my own heart pounding in my chest. I felt weird and excited and afraid, all at once. As we all gathered around the canisters, like hypnotized by the yellowish glow, the insides seemed to boil harder.

“What the hell is this ?” said Rachel before Cassie added “Guys, maybe we should…”

Too late. Everything fucked up from there. I am not really sure what happened. I remember the canisters suddenly opened, the glow blinding us, before a sort of liquid just poured out onto us. It leaked out, and as thick as it seemed, began to crawl all onto us. It was too dark to see, but I could feel the fluid getting onto me. As if it had tiny legs. I just cried in panic, fearing it was my skin melting under the action of an hazardous substance.   
Inevitably, I felt it crawling under my socks, my pants and getting onto my legs.

The five of us seemed to fall onto the ground. But we didn’t had any time to gather our minds as we tried to get out of the substance. I was shaking stronger than I never did before. But it was from far the best part. Without more ceremony, we suddenly heard huge noises coming. Above us, I could swear it sounded like helicopters. Then, we covered our ears as a huge explosion came to us and the ground shivered. I swore the building would fall anytime soon, giving me a rush of energy to stand up and get to Cassie and Rachel to help them.

"Come on, guys, we need to get out of here" I screamed, almost deaf from the explosion.

As we all got up, we got blind by incoming lights at the entrance of the warehouse. We just had time to run before bullets whistled at ours ears.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck! Crawl on the ground!”

Falling onto my elbows, I scrapped my skin onto the concrete.

The explosive shockwave came to close, before sounds of footsteps came in. Voices of men seemed to be heard from outside the warehouse.

"Someone has beaten us to the Meld! Capture them!" one of the voices shouted, as the footsteps began to sound more and more closer, raising our collective stress as I laid low on the ground. Who are these people, and what do they mean by Meld?

"Great, just great, Jake. We gotten ourselves into a gunfight, and we have someone after us." exclaimed Cassie, as she tried to fine a vantage point to escape from the warehouse.

The sounds of footsteps began to sound louder and louder, as I decided to simply get up and run. No point being sitting ducks here.

"Follow me!" I told my friends, as I quickly get up and run further into the warehouse, and hide behind the barrels. Rachel saw what I did and followed suit, as with Tobias, Marco and Cassie.

We soon felt as if the worse has just came to be as we heard gunfire. With several loud bursts of gunfire, stray bullets hit the crates, rusty machines in a cacophony of noise, as we heard more footsteps.

"EXALT operatives entered the building. The 'Meld' canisters are destroyed." shouted another voice, as more of the sounds of footsteps echoed into the hallway

As we hid in the darkness, careful not to make a sound as we heard the footsteps of a man. We all tried to lay low, as we noticed a tall man in what appeared to be some kind of business apparel, wearing a bandanna on the lower face, sunglasses on the eyes, and holding a gun on his hands. He looked around, before he turned to our side, and slowly make his move.  
As he walked, he noticed the sound of gunfire, as we heard it as well. He quickly turned away from our side, as he rushed out. I turned to Rachel and Tobias, as they seemed nervous about everything we've been through so far.

Marco noticed the fire exit sign, looked around, before he began to run out, trying to get to the fire exit "This way! It's the way out of here!" shouted Marco, as we followed him. We saw the man, unaware of out escape, firing at what appeared to be soldiers wearing combat outfits unlike what we ever saw in the news. The intense gunfight forced us to lie low as we run, while the man in suit took cover, firing at the soldiers who are doing the same as well

And a splat is heard, as the man dropped dead, lying limp on the ground as we saw his lifeless body and a hole on his skull. But that, is not the scariest thing we've ever saw.

We saw some green, slimy, slug like thing crawling out of the hole on the man's head, as it began to crawl away from the man

"What... is that...." asked Tobias, as he looked at the slimy slug crawling on the ground, holding my hands in fear

"I never seen anything like it before..." remarked Cassie, as she saw the slug began to crawl towards us

"We got to get out of here!" I shouted, before we continued our escape, rushing through the rows of crates as we tried to head to the exit.

We fled to one of the other abandoned machinery, and as we hid there, we noticed a dog hidden beside one of the crates. It seemed to be unaware of the gunfight just now, until now, as it perked it's ears while wagging it's tail, seemingly nervous.

Cassie tried her best to calm it down, naturally, considering her experience in handling animals at her barn, hoping that the dog couldn't giveaway our location. I offered to help out as well

"Rachel, keep an eye out for a moment. We're going to make sure the dog doesn't bark out our presence" I spoke as I touched it, caressing it carefully as Cassie guided me. As I did so, I noticed the dog seemed to began to calm down, not in a relaxed way, but in a tranquilizer on it's neck way. I felt some odd feeling on my hand when I touched the dog.

A fucking war was going on out there. My mind was already full of deep disturbing images. Enough to go to the shrink for years, believe me. Hopefully, both my mind and body were too occupied running away and surviving I couldn’t think.

Soon enough, I realized the great idea of Tobias splitting up wasn’t a good idea at all. I felt myself blocked behind a stack of barrels and a concrete wall. A few feet away from my head, I could hear bullets and knives slicing the air.

Then, as I covered my eyes. I didn’t see it, but felt the dog huddling against me.

Suddenly, all sounded calmer. Calmer, but crazy scary. The sounds of boots coming closer broke the sudden silence. I could swear I pissed in my pants, as I held my hand over the shaking dog mouth as strong as if I was holding to my life.

Just as we thought we could hide on forever, another man in suit began to come closer as Tobias spoke to us "They're coming our way! We got to split up!"

We split into each other as we ran out of our cover, and further away through the series of crates, barrels, and machinery. And I find my self hiding behind a row of barrels. 

As I hid, I hoped that the man in suit didn't find either me or any one of my friends. More of the gunfire can be heard as I saw not only several men in suit firing their guns, but also some soldiers returning fire as well.

I could swear the soldier was only six feet away from me now. I heard my heart pounding harder and harder in my ears, truly hoping he didn’t see me or my friends. I was sure I was going to die, right then. I could see in my mind the way the bullets can pierce through every organ I have.

If you've never been really afraid, let me tell you - it does things to you. It takes over your mind and your body. You want to scream. You want to run. You want to wet your pants.

And if you think you're brave, well, wait till you're a university student covering a few feet away from a shootout.

I don't know what came over me right then. I was terrified.

I heard the boots again, and the breath getting away. But I still couldn’t move a nail. I just couldn’t hide here forever. For sure more will come.

Suddenly, and I don’t know why, I looked at the dog in my arms and I really wished to become him so we could escape together.

Then, all got kinda fucked up. Believe me when I say this. I don’t know how, nor why, but suddenly my skin became itchy. As if something was running under my skin.

I looked at my hand, before totally freaking out. There was… there was some fur growing on it. I just wanted to scream, but managed to hold it. What the fuck was happening. 

But soon enough, like in a strange dream, I kinda felt more and more comfortable with the feeling. As I looked further, the fur took an orange tint and grew more, before my fingers literally melted, my nails sharpening and my all hands shrinking into paws. 

I didn’t know why and how it was happening, but judging the color, I was becoming a dog. And I wished it.

I extended my two front paws on the floor, as the change got upon my arms, first strengthening my muscles, before comprising them into dog’s legs. I could feel a warm fur crawling on my arms, shoulders and under my shirt. Then, suddenly, with a cracking noise, my elbows reversed and I almost puked.

I closed my eyes, just wishing it to happen but without standing all that was happening. All my body felt really strange.

I didn’t know what was happening around me anymore, but when I reopened my eyes I was on all fours and I could swear a tail has grown behind me. In a sudden push, I felt face bulging out. My eyes drew closer together, as fluffy ears took the last remnants of my humanity.

I was… I was a dog. It was insane.

And just about time, as the man managed to come closer to my position, and as he noticed me. He was stunned briefly after seeing two identical dogs at the same place, as he waivered on which one to shoot.

Noticing how he stopped, I took the initiative by pouncing at him, surprising him as he accidentally fired his weapon into the roof. The gunfire rang as the bullet zipped through the air, hitting the roof, scaring the dog into running away as I bared my teeth at him.

Soon, it's like as if my distraction worked, I turned around quickly as I saw two more of the men in suits began to come out of the other stockpiles of crates and barrels as they heard the gunfire. I saw the man struggling to get me off as I pressed on him, before I felt the strange urge kicking in, as I growled at him.

Taking no chances, I quickly bolted off from the man's chest as I paced across the warehouse, trying to regroup with my friends. I tried to recall where they could be hiding, as I managed to find Cassie who've been hiding behind the barrels while I hid myself with the dog. She seemed to be just as worried as I did, and certainly the rest of my friends.

Cassie can only watch me as I tried to tell her the dog she's looking at is me, so I looked at Cassie, as I barked and sat on the ground, wagging my tail. I hoped that she recognize that it's me

And just my luck, Cassie looked at me as she asked "Is that you? Jake?" It seems I don't act too much like a dog for her to realize that.

So, I barked, trying to convey her that it is me after all, and she squat down as she hugged me for a bit "Let's find a way out of here, We can figure out how you did it later"

So Cassie and I ran, zipping through the area, keeping an eye out for those men in suits as we do so. The gunfire remained intense, as we heard the cries of men being shot, while I tried to recall the smell of Rachel, Tobias and Marco, trying to find them in the midst of the vast warehouse.

But just as we thought we're home free, Cassie turned around and saw the three men in suits coming after us, and we picked up our pace

"There she is! After her!" shouted one of the men, as he ran

"Hold your fire! We want them alive!" shouted the man behind the other two men in front of him.

We saw Tobias hiding underneath the warehouse shelf, as he gestured us to get down in with him. Cassie ducked down as she hid while I simply went inside the shelf. Tobias was obviously worried about Jake, understandable considering how much he looked up to me

"Where's Jake, Cassie?" asked Tobias "And why is the dog following us?"

"Jake is the dog, Tobias. I think he somehow turned into one" explained Cassie. Thanks for the explanation

The men ran through the corridor, passing by the warehouse shelf, not noticing all three of us hiding right in the dark underneath it. We all peeked out after a while, hoping that we haven't seen the last of them

"Coast is clear. Let's try to find Rachel and Marco" said Cassie, before she began to come out of the shelf, before Tobias and I followed suit.

We are not quite sure how far we have ran, nor did we cared how much we did run though this place. Everything is all too confusing for me. First alien canisters with some kind of liquid flowing into us, then helicopter sounds and explosions, and then gunfire and soldiers, and now, I became a dog? Just what did we find ourselves into?

We managed to find Marco, hiding inside an apparently open wooden box, as Cassie and Tobias helped getting him out of the box, while I stood by on high alert. My tense stress, adding with my canine instincts, put me on high alert, looking around as if everything around me could be a threat. I saw one of the solders in body armor began to move towards our direction, before he took cover as gunfire is heard once more.

Out came another of the men in suit as he hid behind cover while the soldier returned fire, just enough to buy us time for Marco to get out of the box, so we can just get out and find Rachel

And there it is, Rachel, finding an improvised weapon, a two by four plank with a nail on it, as she wielded it, keeping an eye out as she stood behind some abandoned machinery. She noticed us as she gestured us to come to her. Yes, I know she meant to be able to protect herself, but in a gunfight, a two by four isn't going to help much.


	2. The Escort

X-COM: Enemy Crossfire  
An Animorphs and X-COM crossover  
Animorphs belong to K.A.Applegate, X-COM belongs to Microprose/Firaxis Games

Chapter 2: The Escort  
[Rachel’s Audio Transcript]

My name is Rachel. Just like Jake mentioned just now, we can’t disclose too much of what we have known, or even tell ourselves our full identity, considering the situation we’re in. We must admit, however, that what we have experienced back then has changed us in far more ways than one, literally in some cases.

To be honest, none of us have any idea how on Earth did Jake became a dog. Though looking back, it all made perfect sense.

So, anyways, back at the warehouse. I must admit, the two by four plank isn’t quite the best weapon against a gunfight, but there’s not much choice in this regard, right?

We all ran through the warehouse, evading gunfire, as we tried to find a way out. As we did so, the men in suits managed to take pursuit of us as we ran as fast as we can. With Jake the dog, leading the path, we hope he remembers the smell of the streets out of the warehouse.

The men in suits found us as they sped towards us, before they find themselves facing the soldiers once more. Two of them hid behind the crates to fire at the soldiers, while the other one continued their pursuit. 

Just then, I’m not sure how or why, but Jake, the dog suddenly turned around before he began to bite onto the man’s legs. He was shocked by the surprise attack, enough to drop his weapon, an assault rifle, as he fell onto the ground.

I took the initiative to hit him with my two by four, rushing towards him before hitting him with the plank, right onto his face. I’m not sure how hard I whacked him, but I saw that same slug like creature, crawling out of his ear, as Cassie yelped as she backed off.

“It’s coming towards me!” she screamed, as she backed off. Marco, taking the opportunity, stomped it with his feet, until a loud squish is heard.

Marco lifted up his leg, taking a good look at the now lifeless and definitely flattened slug with some kind of fluid smeared on the ground, before turning to his shoes, witnessing the dripping smile on his sole.

“Ew…. Looks like I have to clean up this pair of shoes away when we’re back home.” remarked Marco, as he tried to rub off the gunk off his sole on the ground.

“Look out! Take cover!” Tobias shouted as he turned around, before we we all dropped to the ground before more bullets whizzed past us.

We quickly got up as we saw one of the men in suit lied dead, with multiple gun wounds on his chest, followed by another one of the slugs crawling out of his ear. 

Another soon rushed after us as he came out of his cover and saw us, while we continued to run out, hoping that he would not be able to reach us.

A quick sharp turn is all we did as we head through the rows of shelves, but we soon find ourselves encircled as we saw another of the men in suit in front of us, as he came closer to us.

“Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. You might as well surrender.” threatened the man, as he held his gun, aiming towards us. The man in suit behind us did the same as he came closer.

Just like that, we all thought we’re going to be dead, until we head the sound of lightning sparks on both the front and the back.

“Arrgh!” shouted the men in suits, as the fell on their knees. We saw them taking out something from their pockets, a syringe, filled with some kind of substance, and was about to inject them into their necks.

But then, we saw the soldiers began to tackle them as they swatted away the syringes, before cuffing them in handcuffs. As the men in suits are subdued, the soldiers looked at us as one of them spoke.

“You’re safe now.” said the soldier, all suited in some kind of military armor, as he dragged the incapacitated man in suit. 

Jake, the dog, clearly still have it’s paranoid streak, growled at the soldiers. Thankfully, the soldier doesn’t seemed to mind.

“Is that your dog?” asked another soldier, as he looked around for more enemies.

How exactly are we going to explain to them that the dog is actually one of our friends? That dog is definitely a stray, no doubt. We certainly can’t say it’s not mine either, considering how it managed to be by our side for so long.

“Um… Actually...” I tried to blurt out something, unaware that the dog seemed to began to enlarge in size. It’s fur began to retract into it’s body as they began to decolor from their orange hue, all while it’s tail retract into the tailbone.

As the soldiers can only gaze in shock and awe, and so do we, the muzzle of the dog began to shrink into the head, while the fluffy dog ears retreated as they shifted away from it’s forehead. It’s paws began to expand as their digits lengthened into fingers while it’s legs began to grow.

It was not long before where the dog once stood, there is now Jake, now completely buck naked, much to his and our embarrassment, and the soldiers turning away out of reluctance to witness his privates.

“Sorry about that” Jake spoke, before he continued “Can I get back my clothes?”

Well, that put a massive damper in our rescue.

The soldiers nodded as they moved aside to let Jake rush out to get his clothes. I nodded as I went after him, followed by Marco, Tobias and Cassie.

As Jake finally went to the pile of clothes, he quickly took them and began to put on them. We all turned away, before we saw one of the soldiers arrived at the scene.

After some minutes of waiting, Jake shouted out, informing us that he finished putting on his clothes.

“I’m done!” Jake shouted out as he got up, before coming out to regroup with us.

“How did you change back?” I asked Jake, as I looked at Jake, with his hair seemingly messier than before, running around the warehouse notwithstanding.

“I just thought of it, the same way as I turned into a dog” Jake explained. “I didn’t know how it happened, but I think something must have gave me that ability, somehow”

“Must be that strange substance that crawled all over our skins” suggested Cassie.

I turned to see the soldier, who seemed to be touching his ear with two of his fingers, nodding for a bit before he turned to us.

“Central told us we have to take you all to the HQ” explained the soldier. “Considering the situation right now, you five are safer there than here”

“Uh… Excuse me? We have work tomorrow. We can’t just leave our apartment behind” explained Marco, shocked at the turn of events.

“Sorry, civilians. But I’m afraid you all are contaminated with the Meld, and will be required to be brought to the laboratory” the soldier explained further.

I nodded, realizing not only that we’re going to be taken by soldiers all because of the strange substance that crawled onto us, but also how did Jake turned into a dog in the first place.

Even Marco and Cassie nodded, as Marco began to speak.

“Well, I guess that’s it then. All because we took one short cut, we got detained by these soldiers after an intense gunfight and chase.” spoke Marco, seemingly distraught about this situation.

“They saved us, Marco. You saw what came out of these men chasing after us. What do you think they are?” Tobias spoke as he faced Marco.

“And what the fuck were you thinking when you decided to take a shortcut into this warehouse, Jake? You nearly got all of us killed!” Marco shouted at Jake, who’s just ruffling his hair back in place, ignoring Tobias’ words.

I find myself unable to hold back as I shouted back.

“Now is not the time to argue, Marco! You saw what came out of these men’s ears. You saw how it crawled towards us. Have you considered what all of this means, Marco?” I asked in a loud tone, restraining myself the urge to slap him in the face as I do so.

The soldiers can only stood by, as Marco looked around, before turning to Tobias, as he spoke.

“I don’t think those slugs are of this world, Marco.. Rachel’s right. They seemed to be aliens.” spoke Tobias, in a smaller voice as he looked down.

“He’s right. To say nothing of the alien canisters we saw, and the fact that these men in suits chased after us. These soldiers are the only people who can help us” said Cassie.

Marco can only look around, before Jake spoke up.

“Well, guys. Considering how screwed we are right now, I think we should just do as the soldiers say.” Jake spoke, as he turned to one of the soldiers.

“Alright, before we submit, I have some questions. Who are you people” Jake asked them as he watched the soldiers.

“We’re not from any national army, that’s all we could say at the moment” spoke the solider.

“Who are these men that are chasing us and why there are slugs crawling out of their heads?” Jake pressed further.

“Alien sympathizers. They seemed to have parasitic aliens in their brains integrated symbiotically.” explained the soldier.

“So you’re saying, that they’re aliens?” asked Tobias. 

“No other way of saying it.” said the soldier.

Jake went quiet, before he nodded, as he spoke.

“I suppose I have nothing else to say. We’ll do as you say” said Jake, before looking at us.

We can only nod in response, as the soldier spoke.

“Well, on to the Skyranger then.” he said, before leading us out of the warehouse. Other soldiers began escorting us out of the warehouse as they hauled the unconscious men in suits along the floor. We all took a deep breath, reflecting everything we witnessed so far.

To recap, first we found some alien canisters that burst and some kind of fluid engulfed and entered out skins. Then, we heard helicopter noise followed by a loud explosion. And then, we saw a bunch of men in suits chasing after us, and a gunfight between them and soldiers took place soon after. And then some of the men are shot dead, with slug like ‘aliens’ crawling out of their heads or ears. Just what exactly is going on here?

The walk out of the warehouse is quiet, to say the least, as the silence inside the warehouse, only marked with the our footsteps is a far cry from the shootout it took place just before. 

Halfway out, we saw several men in hazmat suits entering through the hole at the warehouse wall, carrying some kind of vessel as they passed by us. Some other men came in, equipped with some kind of sanitary equipment, as if they’re ready to clean up the area.

“Central. EXALT operative successfully captured. We’re transporting them into the Skyranger. Civilians found contaminated are escorted as well” spoke the soldier leading us as he held his ears with his two fingers, before putting his finger down.

“Sounds like we’re dealing with some secret government agency, if you ask me” said Marco.

“We’re not from any government. I heard that” said the soldier in return.

Marco can only remain silent as we watched the men pass by us, before we all left the warehouse, as we saw a massive aircraft of unusual shape, unlike anything we would conceive as a military aircraft.

“Wow….” Tobias silently spoke as he looked at the aircraft.

“Must be a vertical take off and landing craft” Jake spoke as he saw the fans on the wings of the aircraft.

We all got into the aircraft, as we’re escorted by the soldiers who are not hauling the men in suits. We are then get into the seats, before the soldiers began to sit in as well. And soon the rest of the men got in, before the cargo door began to close up.

The men in hazmat suits seemed to be carrying some kind of vessel, like one of those specimen jars in some movies. Inside the vessel contained the same disgustingly green slug crawling inside, it’s antenna perking up, as if it’s angrily taunting us. 

To be honest, all of this is very unsettling for us. Even with all these men surrounding it and us.

Before long, we heard the humming as the sound from the aircraft’s intercom began to speak.

“Central, this is Big Sky. We’re taking off back to HQ” the intercom spoke, before we all felt the aircraft began to lift up.

“Seems like we’re not going back, it seems” Marco spoke, with all of us kept quiet. 

I don’t feel like talking at this point, especially since a lot happened so quickly and we can’t even make heads or tails about them. It’s all confusing to us, like we all came straight into an alternate universe.

One of the men in suit began to speak, as he regained consciousness and noticed that he’s tied up by his arms.

“You have no idea……. Who you’re dealing with……” the man spoke.

“What do you mean?” Tobias asked, as the soldiers remained quiet.

“We got connections….. More than you puppets thought….” the man spoke, coughing between his words.

“What connections?” Tobias continued, and Cassie and I took a close look at the man, watching him as he speak.

“That which you all will soon find out….. One way or another….. Eventually……” the man spoke, before he closed his eyes as he kept quiet.

Tobias turned to Jake as he asked.

“What does he mean by… connections? Does it have something to do with these slugs?” he spoke, before he turned to the seemingly menacing and angry slug.

“I don’t know…. To be fair, none of us really know” Jake spoke.

The rest of the flight is uneventful, with us worrying about our used to be ordinary life as university students, and to think that’s all we have to worry about…


	3. The Escort

X-COM: Enemy Crossfire  
An Animorphs and X-COM crossover  
Animorphs belong to K.A.Applegate, X-COM belongs to Microprose/Firaxis Games

Chapter 3: The Debriefing

[Marco’ Audio Transcript]

My name is Marco. You know what my friends before me have said before. We can’t disclose too much of our identities, and what we have known. We’re all lucky that we’re still alive back then, but we aren’t quite sure for how long could we deal with what we’ve been through.

To be frank about it, I am just as nervous about all of this as my friends, but I guess it all made up with the fact that we aren’t alone with what we’ve experienced.

So, the first thing we’ve heard after we dozed off from the trip, was the sound of the aircraft’s landing, as we felt the slightly harsh landing. The men in suits seemed to be unconscious, and the slug in the vessel has apparently called it quits, as it stayed in there, not doing anything.

The cargo door began to open, as sounds of machinery is heard. I turned around as we saw what appears to be a landing area, but oddly enough, it seemed to not be like we’re on the surface.

The soldiers and the rest of the men began to leave the aircraft, as we got up and began to follow suit. As soon as we stepped out of the aircraft, and looked up, we noticed that we seemed to be in an underground complex. Some men, presumably the crew running the area are giving out instructions as they did their work.

“Wow... This place is… amazing….” Tobias exclaimed, as he looked around the area with excitement, much to our chagrin.

“Glad to hear of it. Welcome to XCOM HQ.” spoke the soldier, as he escorted us.

“XCOM? What is that?” I asked, clearly confused about all of this.

“Clandestine organization dedicated to the protection of humanity from alien threats” said the soldier.

“Aliens? There’s an alien invasion going on?” I asked further.

“Yes. It has been going on since last month. What happened just now is but one of the few incidents” explained the soldier.

“So, you mean.. It’s been going on for so long?” Cassie asked.

“I guess the cover up worked well, after all. Mind you, we don’t want too much panic going on to the public, nor are we letting the aliens take advantage of the media.” said the soldier

As we let the hangar, we entered the corridor made of concrete and steel, presumably reinforced, illuminated only by some white lighting, as we walked on the concrete path. We saw some men and women going through the corridor, some in labcoats, others in body armor like the soldiers, and some in some other kind of clothing.

“Seems like a lot of people are involved in this organization…” Jake spoke as he observed the people around here.

“Where exactly are we going?” Rachel asked.

“The containment facility. Dr Vahlen is expecting you five, as with Officer Bradford, Dr Shen and the Commander himself” answered the soldier.

“Who are they?” I asked.

“You’ll know them soon enough” said the soldier, and we all kept quiet.

As soon as we arrived at the containment facility, we can only look in awe of the cylindrical glass containment cells. One of the cell began to open, as we’re led into it. 

“Wait, we’re going to be held in there?” I asked as I turned around.

Before we got any answers, we are pushed into the containment cell, before they began to close up. As we tried to regain focus and get back up, I shouted.

“Wait! You can’t just keep us in here!” I spoke loudly, trying to get the soldier’s attention, but he clearly ignored our pleas as he turned around.

Rachel managed to get up, before she rushed to the presumably glass wall as she banged at it.

“Let us out of here!” she shouted.

“Rachel, this won’t work. You’ll only hurt yourself” Jake spoke, tried to put some sense to her.

“No point wasting energy here, Rachel. We should just wait and see what the people the soldier mentioned have to say when they get here” Cassie suggested.

Rachel looked around, starring at us, and the leaving soldiers, before she began to sit down, calming down.

“I guess we have no choice huh?” Rachel spoke as she began to lie down.

“Yeah… You got that one right” I spoke, as I did the same, with the others following suit.

We’re not quite sure how long we waited, but it feels like hours. Before long, we heard the footsteps of not one, but four people walking towards us.

“The civilians are in the containment chamber?” asked one of the voice, which seemed to be a mix of masculine and feminine.

“Yes, commander. According to the soldiers’ words, one of them seemed to have actually turned into an animal as a result from contact with Meld.” spoke the female voice, with an accent that shouts ‘German’

“It appears there is more to the Meld than we once knew. More research would be needed to understand it” stated another male voice, definitely coming out of someone older than them.

“Regardless, they should be considered lucky that they are not harmed during their contact with EXALT” said the voice of a younger man, definitely masculine sounding.

I got up, as I saw Jake turning back in shame as we get ready to face the people who will soon be seeing us. I guess we might as well make ourselves presentable, regardless of our situation.

“Jake, no need to hide from them. Not than we can anyways, considering that it’s all transparent here” I told Marco, as Jake grudgingly began to turn around.

And soon, four people arrived as they looked at us. One is an older man, Asiatic looking, wearing a jacket with a name tag of him on it, another a younger man, Caucausian and of unknown ethnicity, wearing a military sweater with am emblem on it, presumably that of the organization itself.

A woman in a labcoat, certainly the one with the ‘German’ accent, came closer to the containment chamber, followed by a seemingly androgynous person wearing a military uniform, stood beside her.

“So, these are the five civilians contaminated with the Meld, aren’t they?” said the man in the uniform, his thumb and index finger on his chin as he asked.

“Yes, commander. Dr Vahlen suggested that we contain them just to see the effects of raw Meld in their system. Personally, I would want to see them returned home as soon as they’re decontaminated” replied the man in the sweater, before turning to the woman.

“If it can be done, of course. What piqued our interest is that one of the civilians have reported to have… metamorphosed into another species. This certainly warrants further investigations, right Dr Shen?” asked the woman scientist, before turning to the older man.

“Yes. It also doesn’t help that EXALT forces began to take a much active turn since the first reports of Meld. It seems that they wanted it badly enough to begin interfering with our operations.” explained the older man.

“Also, our soldiers has manage to capture some unusual aliens from the bodies of EXALT forces. They appear to be parasitical in nature, but their relationship with the increased aggression on EXALT’s part raises more questions than answers” said the man in sweater once more.

“I guess it is time to have a little chit chat with the civilians. May I approach the civilians?” asked the man in the uniform.

The man in sweater looked at the man in the uniform, before he nodded.

“I suppose it won’t do much harm to talk to them, provided that you maintain a distance from them” he spoke, before the containment chamber began to open, courtesy of one of the technicians, just enough for him to enter.

“Thank you, Officer. I appreciate your concern for the civilian’s well-being, and I am just as glad to hear the successful capture of EXALT operatives” he spoke, before he began to enter the containment chamber, which it soon closes as soon as he’s inside.

On a first glance, he does not seem to be resembling any definitive ethnicity, brown skinned, curly brown hair, brown eyes. And yet, his facial features looked like as if they were what you get if you put our faces and mixed them together in an editing software. He looked at us with a mix of curiosity and bewilderment in his eyes, before he spoke.

“Greetings, civilians. I hoped none of you are disturbed by the hostile turn of events. Welcome to XCOM, you can call me Commander ‘X’” the man in the uniform spoke. 

“And behind me are Central Officer Bradford, who runs most of the operations in the XCOM project. Dr Vahlen, our chief scientist at our research department, and Dr Shen, chief engineer at the engineering department” he continued as he pointed at the man in the sweater, the woman, and the older man.

We all looked at each other, before we turned to the man who called himself ‘Commander X’. From what we can tell, he seems to be in charge of the entire organization, and also he doesn’t seem to want his name be known.

“Uh… Nice to meet you, sir…” Tobias muttered out, as he looked at Commander X.

“X…. Is that your nickname?” I asked him.

“Yes, if you’re asking, but no, I’m not telling you my name.” said Commander X.

“So, what is XCOM?” Cassie asked, paying attention to his uniform, which is admittedly, a sharp looking one.

“Extraterrestrial Combat Unit. We’ve been activated since the last two months, and there has been an unusual spike in EXALT activities, in addition to some anomalous alien activity” explained Commander ‘X’.

“You mean the world’s under attack by aliens?” Rachel asked.

“Yes, though I thought you would have realized it by now. So anyways, it has piqued our interest that a rogue organization has began to undermine our operations even since Meld canisters began to appear.” Commander ‘X’ explained further.

“Your unfortunate entanglement, is but one of these incidents. We have never been certain as for the reason for their increased intervention with our operations, until now.”

“But what of the slug like creatures?” Cassie asked.

“Dr Vahlen will be conducting research on them soon. But not before she collect some samples from you five, considering your bodies’ contamination with the Meld.” answered Commander ‘X’, as he pointed at the woman in the lab coat, who nodded as she looked at us.

“What’s Meld, by the way?” I asked.

“Cybernetic nano-machines with organic and mechanical components. They have a property to combine different organic materials with one another, or machinery with organic life.” answered Commander ‘X’.

Dr Vahlen she showed her tablet to us, which played a clip featuring what appears to be strange, triangular cell-like structures floating in some kind of suspension.

“That was the examination of the Meld on their first investigation. There are two possibilities in light of your metamorphosis ability since the contamination..” explained Dr Vahlen.

“Either the Meld has additional abilities that we are yet to understand, or it is a similar but different variant of Meld”

“So you mean, these substances are incorporated into our bloodstream?” asked Jake, as he looked around his hands before turning to Dr Vahlen.

“Most likely so, among many other tissues in the body.” she answered, before turning to the Commander and Officer Bradford.

“Now, if you excuse me. I’d like to collect some samples from these civilians. Just some blood and hair.” suggested Dr Vahlen, as she stared at the two men.

Officer Bradford can only stare back at Dr Vahlen for a while before he tried to answer back, only for Commander ‘X’ to speak out.

“Sure, Dr Vahlen. Be gentle to them.” he spoke, and Dr Vahlen nodded, before the containment chamber began to open, as Dr Vahlen went for one of the tables before picking up a case.

“Looks like we’re going to be experimented upon” Cassie remarked. “I don’t like the looks of it”

“Don’t worry about it. Vahlen does much worse to our enemies.” assured Commander ‘X’, which, to be frank about it, is not at all reassuring.

“To put it lightly, none of the alien subjects she tested came out alive” said

She got inside the containment chamber, before opening the case, containing what appears to be several medical tools, such as syringes, test tubes, pliers, to name a few.

As she took a syringe and a needle, she approached Tobias, as he looked at her.

“Uh… Doctor? Will this hurt?” he asked. I can sense the unease as he looked at the woman.

“Only a little” she answered, and I saw her rubbing some disinfectant at a spot on Tobias’ arm, before she injected the syringe and extracted blood from him. He winced as she does so, before she took out the syringe, injected it into a test tube and quickly sprayed some kind of coagulant on the site

“There, that should do it” Dr Vahlen spoke, before she turned to Cassie, as she got ready to do the same.

A quick spray of disinfectant, an injection and extraction, and a spray of coagulant later, Cassie’s blood was taken. She took it quite well, not a surprise considering how her veterinary medicine lessons involved some sampling for disease monitoring.

Soon, it was my turn, as I rolled up my sleeves and got ready for the injection. She looked at me as she prepared the site for injection at my arm, before she did the same as with Tobias and Cassie. I closed my eyes as I felt the faint pain of the needle’s prick, before it all came to a close.

With an approving nod, my wounds are sealed by the coagulants, as I watched Dr Vahlen putting the test tubes with my blood inside the case with the other two tubes. 

When it came to Rachel’s turn, Jake looked at Dr Vahlen, as she get ready for the blood sample collection from Rachel.

“So, Dr Vahlen? What’s going to happen while we’re being experimented?” asked Jake, looking at her with concern.

“That is up to the commander to decide, but I’m certain that we would find answered to the incident, including your metamorphosis.” explained Dr Vahlen.

“You mean how I changed into a dog and changed back?” asked Jake.

“Yes. No doubt you’re just as puzzled as we are.” replied Dr Vahlen.

Rachel showed her arm, and Dr Vahlen took the blood sample from her. And a few minutes later, it’s only Jake’s turn.

“Ready for the sampling?” asked Dr Vahlen.

Jake can only nod as he showed her his arm, before she took his blood sample, and then she packed them up, and left the containment chamber.

“So, how did it feel?” I asked everyone.

“Weird, to say the least” Tobias answered, as he looked at Jake.

“Jake, what’s being a dog like?” he asked Jake, with the rest of us turned to him, before Jake looked at himself.

“I’m not too sure, guys. But at first it felt completely weird, getting used to a different body. Even my eyes lost their color vision, seeming mostly in blue and yellow” answered Jake, as he lowered his head.

“Then, I felt a rush of instincts flooding my mind, possibly due to the intense situation we’re in, and I was on high alert. Trying to control my instincts is a bit hard, and I got out of hand when I bit the man’s leg”

“You mean, you let it’s instincts take control of you?” asked Cassie.

“Maybe. But it was the only thing I could do to protect all of you at the time. I didn’t see a choice in the matter.” answered Jake, before he looked at me in the eyes.

“I’m sorry…. For putting all of you into this. I’m sorry, Marco. I didn’t know what would happen next back then” said Jake.

I would have not accepted his apology, if it wasn’t for a few facts. One, there’s so much we have not known about things that happened around us. Two, he saved us from those men chasing after us, and three, we still have to deal with everything we have been through regardless. So, I did the only thing I could do.

“Apology accepted. Maybe we could go for pub crawl if we could get back to our lives.” I spoke to Jake, feeling a bit better now that we got our priorities sorted out, at least, for now.

“So… What’s next?” Rachel asked.

“I’m not sure, but somehow…. I think that commander seemed familiar” Tobias spoke, as watched Commander ‘X’, Officer Bradford, Dr Vahlen and Dr Shen began to turn around and leave us in there.

“How do you know you saw him before?” I asked.

Tobias can only look at the commander with his certainly stylish military cap, as he talked to Dr Shen, while Dr Vahlen talked to Officer Bradford, all while they walked away from us.


End file.
